Owner of Joe’s Pawn Shop facing federal charges

ALBERTVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - Earlier this month, federal agents including ATF and the Secret Service arrested six people while executing a search warrant at Joe’s Pawn Shop.

A legal document filed Monday shows that the federal government will charge the owner of Joe’s Pawn Shop, Joe Campbell III, for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Campbell III was arrested and charged on Aug. 10 by federal agents and was released the same day on a $100,000 surety bond with a special condition.

Previously the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office has described what was found inside the building and where it may have come from.

In the documents, the ATF agent who was in charge of the situation, Phillip Sangster, describes how the pawn shop was set up. He says that the building is a two-story structure with a public storefront on the first floor.

Sangster describes finding Campbell on the second floor alone. In the room where Campbell was found, the agent saw 3D printers along with several boxes of magazines. Sangster added that there were shipping labels on boxes and the labels corresponded to boxes of magazines on the shelves.

The documents also show that the pawn shop was registered to Campbell in 1998 but when the business license expired, the business continued to operate.

Sangster states that Campbell was convicted of conspiracy to deal in firearms without a federal firearms license in 2007. Lastly, the agent argues that he believes many of the firearms found in the building were not manufactured in Alabama and therefore affected interstate commerce.

One of the firearms found in the shipping room, specifically in a box located on an Axiom 3D printer, where Campbell was encountered, was an FEG, Model SMC-380, .380 caliber pistol bearing serial number 9314313. This firearm was not manufactured in Alabama. Based on my training and experience and the training and experience of other ATF agents, I believe that the majority, if not all, of the firearms discovered during the search warrant, were not manufactured in Alabama. Thus, if the firearms, including the FEG, Model SMC-380, .380 caliber pistol bearing serial number 9314313, were possessed in Alabama, they necessarily affected interstate commerce

To read the entire document referenced, see below.

Campbell III has been ordered to ‘appear with appropriate surety documentation’ for a further bond hearing on August 16 at 10:30 a.m. at the Federal Courthouse in Huntsville.

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